7 Marcos ministers to attend burial

EX-MINISTERS Former Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Francisco “Kit” Tatad argue in favor of the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. PHOTO BY LAARNI

FORMER senator Juan Ponce Enrile on Monday said the late President Ferdinand Marcos has the right to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig, as he announced that he and seven other living former Cabinet members of the late dictator would join the funeral next month.

“I am wondering why this has become an issue as to where he should be buried. As far as I know, the law has no exception that says he could not be buried there. He was a former president and former soldier. No one is denying that he was once a military man. Many were buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani who were not heroes, no medals. Why should he be excluded in that piece of land. Some of them are staff officers but Marcos fought the Japanese,” Enrile told a forum at Manila Hotel organized by members of Samahang Plaridel, a group of journalists.

“He fought during the war and that was the only major war we were involved in, why deny him the privilege of being buried there. That is why I don’t understand why we even have to litigate the burial of president Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani because if you study what Marcos did over the time that he was president, I don’t think anyone, with due respect for those that followed him, could equal his record except that he declared martial law to save this country,” he said.

The former Defense secretary of Marcos said he and six other former Cabinet members would join the funeral slated next month.

“I was invited to the funeral on Sept. 18 and I will go there together with [six]living former ministers of Marcos,” he said referring to Cesar Virata (finance), Jaime Laya (education), Gerardo Sicat (socioeconomic planning), Francisco Tatad (press), David Consunji (public works), and Roberto Ongpin (trade and industry).

On the issue of human rights abuses, torture, disappearances and rapes committed during Martial Law, Enrile said none of them were proven in court because none of the victims filed a case before the Philippine courts even during the time of the late President Corazon Aquino.

Govt defends planned burial
Government lawyers on Monday defended before the Supreme Court the Duterte administration’s decision to allow the interment of the late strongman Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) invoked the executive powers of President Rodrigo Duterte under the law that allows honors and burial at the Heroes’ Cemetery for the late strongman.

In an 86-page comment, the OSG stressed that the decision of President Duterte to allow a hero’s burial for Marcos was a valid exercise of his prerogative power under the Constitution and the Administrative Code.

The comment was filed in reaction to three petitions filed last week by different groups of Martial Law victims led by former Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and former Commission on Human Rights chairwoman Etta Rosales.

Alvarez files petition
A fourth petition was filed on Monday by former senator Heherson Alvarez and other personalities.

Allowing the burial would be “a mockery and repudiation of all the efforts of the past three decades, not only to find restitution for his victims, but to unshackle this nation from the burden of corruption which the dictator spawned and allowed to fester,” said the petition.

Alvarez’s group sought a temporary restraining order or a writ of preliminary injunction to stop the burial.

The former senator said in a statement President Duterte should draw a line between his friendship with the Marcoses and his duty, and “this is an act of fine statesmanship on Digong’s part.”

The high court is set to hear the case in oral arguments on Wednesday.

‘Rights violations not related’
The OSG, in it comment, belittled the claims of human rights violations and corruption under the Marcos regime, saying they had no connection at all to the case.

The Marcos family supported the government’s defense.

In a 13-page comment lodged before the high court on Monday, the Marcoses questioned the legal standing of petitioners and the injury that would be caused with the said burial.

The Marcos family, represented by lawyer Hyacinth Rafael-Antonio, noted the failure of the petitioners to cite clear and unmistakable rights or grave injury that they would suffer as a result of the interment.

“Allegations of violations of human rights personally experienced by petitioners and of others, in general, after declaration of Martial Law on Sept. 21, 1972, are denied. Apart from being irrelevant to the issue at hand, the allegations may not be assumed as facts but needs to be established with competent evidence,” the Marcoses said.

20 Comments

Who knows what happened to the Philippines had Martial Law not declared? People who complained about it, should know what Martial Law means; the suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus, etc., etc. The victims must be those who tried to play ‘hero’ on behalf of the people and challenged the law. If so, why are they complaining? On FEM burial at the LNMB, are we going by the rules, or by sentiments of those who claim to be victims of ML?

There may be a some valid reasons for petitioners like the compensation they are asking.
Fine. But what is the relevant in their claim of that compensation to the dead body for many years?
Do they need that body to be investigate, to subpoena to attend the hearing, if any?
Do they need that body to be arrested and do an oath once call by the judge?
The family of any persons corpse has the right to bury it it any cemetery they like as long they submitted the necessary papers and paid the corresponding fees( if any).
Just because of that cemetery was called as “Libingan ng mga Bayani”? What a “HELL they’re talking about?
Do they knew exactly meaning of the “Bayani”?
How about Ninoy Aquino, they declare him as a Hero !!! NINOY AQUINO IS A HERO? THAT’S A BULL SHIT !!! WHAT HE HAS DONE TO BECAME A HERO TOO ?? AHH YES …..THE PLAZA MIRANDA BOMBING, REVELATIONS OF MOST CONFIDENTIAL SECURITY MATTERS, ETC.

But who is Alvarez? Whatever is good to him is his agenda. Pope Francis admonishes us to “Mercy and Compassion”. As a truly Christian nation, let us heed that call. FEC deserves to be buried at the Libingan by law and executive prerogative. Those opposed do not constitute the majority. God bless the Philippines.

Marcos is a hero and the best President our country we had had so far. Of course Duterte is following that footstep. He deserves to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani more than anyone else. Cory and PNoy are the worst Presidents our country have had. They buried their dog at the Libingan ng mga Bayani and soiled the name of the cemetery. They are hypocrites, corrupt and callous leaders.

Marcos must instead be CREMATED and ashes be kept by Imelda as her bejeweled Urns and not interred in Heroes Cemetery!

Duterte’s irrational and idiotic reason that he permits Marcos burial in the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB) is because his father was Marcos cabinet man and he voted for Marcos was more personal and do not reflect the Filipinos sentiments and judgment on the matter as they are affected by Marcos ruthless rule for killings thousands of protestors, violations of human rights and lastly but most heinous was Marcos plunder of Philippine wealth which the Marcos Family now enjoys and source of income for the next ten generations!

Duterte now claims that the law on LNMB allows Presidents and soldiers to be interred there.
Duterte’s logic that being a President and soldier there is nothing wrong to interred Marcos in LNMB. That is precisely why Marcos remains do not DESERVE to be in the LNMB since he was a dictator, brutal, plundering President and FAKE and FRAUD soldier! Marcos was the biggest liar in all his life, whether as a person or politician.

Ferdinand Marcos was not only a Great Liar. Marcos was a big-time congenital gigantic liar and a thief! Marcos first lie was when he denied he stole a rifle from UP armory, used as the murder weapon he used to assassinate Nalundasan, Marcos’s father political opponent in Ilocos Norte. This was the trial court’s (Ilocos Court of First Instance, now called Regional Trial Court) findings from evidence which convicted Marcos of Murder, though later overturned by the Supreme Court as he was absolved by Justice Jose P.,Laurel, because of his friendship with Pepito Laurel his UP classmate and the justice’s son.
During the Japanese occupation in 1943, Marcos formed the Maharlika Group not as a guerrila unit to fight the Japanese but sold contraband to Japanese army and during he liberation in 1945 to PILFER weapons and materials from US army bases.

Having a political vision for and embellish his wartime records, Marcos attempted to dupe the Americans, including Gen. Mcarthur, that he was a captain in Philippine army and a Bataan death-March prisoner but he was investigated by the US army and uncovered him as a FRAUD! In his political career Marcos presented himself as a war-hero receiving 27 war medals which later on turned-out to be faked medals as unearth by New York Times from the US archives, which was published in 1986 during the waning years of his martial law regime.

Duterte’s position that Marcos should be buried in Libingan ng mga Bayani “not because he was a hero but because he was a soldier” is wrong because Marcos was neither never a hero nor even a soldier” for that matter. Marcos was just a fraudulent claimant self-styled patriot, a great liar and a notorious plunderer of Filipinos wealth and nationalism!
Marcos must not be buried at all but must remain in his wax mausoleum in Ilocos to forever symbolize greed for wealth and political power, dictatorial brutal regime to be encrypted in the minds of all for all time to remember by the whole world!

Duterte’s reason (permitting Marcos burial in the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB) do not reflect the Filipinos sentiments , neither your yelping with the yellow people..look or read all the comment in here, it’s only you who opposed.

Again, regardless if he is not a soldier, liar, ruthless, plunderer (which all presidents are!)You cannot disapprove that he became president period! Then he can be buried there. If you have other problems
with marcos, you can still raise it to the courts or rally everyday all you want

“….do not reflect the filipinos sentiments…”. On the contrary, the 16 million votes of the President is an indicator of the people’s positive response to put an end to these endless bickerings. Remember that Duterte was so clear on allowing the burial of the late FM in Libingan all through out during the campaign. There is no law prohibiting the burial, and one is not necessarily be a hero to be buried there.

This will be a good fight and it will be interesting what the Supreme Court has to say. Personally, Marcos should be allowed to be buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani and he should be buried there. Let us forgive his sins, and move on as a country. Part of a prayer that says,….”forgive our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us”…should remind us always, because we are only people that eventually die or leave this world without hatred in our hearts.

When then Pres Marcos declare Martial Law, he was defending the nation from communist invasion. With that alone is enough to consider him a hero. Death and disappearances of communist rebels? Those were parts of war against communism, another heroic act.

Benigno Aquino Jr. started the rebellion against the government, against a free country, he is a traitor of democracy. His death saved the lives of so many, soldiers and innocent people. The Philippines is safer without him. Who ever authored his death can be considered hero. Unfortunately, Marcos can not claim that heroic act

My wife and I were anti-Marcos activists (of the rallying kind). We were shot at by snipers atop tall buildings near the corner of Legarda Mendiola, tear-gassed at Liwasang Bonfacio, joined the entire Tarlac to Tarmac march, were at the EDSA Gate 3 the first hours of this revolution. But that was almost 40 years ago and we have seen worse Presidents after Marcos. Today we can see nothing illegal or morally wrong in allowing his burial at the Libingan…finally ! In fact it is morally right and totally legal except for some protesters who we understand have rights to express their stand. After the Sep 18 burial, we can then leave behind this period in our history as a distant memory and focus on the problems besetting the nation that is teetering towards becoming a narco-state any time soon